Becoming Christian: The Formation of the Pauline Churches

This course will explore the development of early Christian communities. We will examine the letters of Paul using social scientific models and material evidence from the first century in order to highlight aspects of early Christian identity and community. We will consider the problems of urban experience and some of the means that Christianity offered to address them, including ritual and religious experience, mutual support, communal meals, social organizations, attitudes to suffering and the body, and ideas that helped to make life meaningful and navigable. Teaching Methods: Lectures, presentation and discussion of research projects, participation in classroom exercises. Means of Evaluation: annotated bibliography, research assignment character profile, participation.